Clear recruitment agency fees with no surprises. Choose standard, exclusive or retained search terms, pay nothing until your hire starts, and get a rebate period on every placement if it doesn't work out.
OUR TERMS
Every business hires differently, so we offer three ways to work with us, with lower fees and longer protection the more commitment you make.
| Terms | Standard Terms | Exclusive Terms | Retained Search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | 20% of base salary | 17.5% of base salary | 15% of base salary |
| When the invoice is sent | First day of employment | First day of employment | 50% invoiced at start of search, 50% invoiced when the candidate starts |
| Payment terms | 14 days | 30 days | 14 days on both invoices |
| Rebate period | 8 weeks | 12 weeks | 12 weeks |
| Rebate (refund) | Diminishing 12.5% per week | Weeks 0 to 4 = 100%, then diminishing 12.5% per week from week 5 to 12 | Weeks 0 to 4 = 100%, then diminishing 12.5% per week from week 5 to 12 |
| After the rebate period | 0% refund after week 8 | 0% refund after week 12 | 0% refund after week 12 |
CHOOSING YOUR TERMS
The right option depends on how urgent the role is, how hard the candidate is to find, and how much of the search you want us to own.
Our no-commitment option. You brief us, we search, and you only pay when your hire starts. There's no fee if we don't make the placement, so it suits one-off hires where you want to keep your options open.
Give us the role on our own for an agreed period and the fee drops, payment terms extend and the rebate period doubles. Working exclusively means we can put more time into the search, and candidates hear one consistent story about your business.
For senior, specialist or confidential roles where the candidate pool is small. Half the fee is paid up front, which lets us run a structured search with a named consultant, agreed milestones and regular progress reports, at our lowest fee.
Case studies
"We brought Digital Waffle in on a retained basis to help us scale at Gnosis. Over twelve months they delivered 28 roles, sourcing the right candidates for each one across functions that aren't always easy to recruit for in this space. They showed a deep understanding of our requirements from the start. Happy to recommend them to anyone hiring at scale."
"We needed to grow headcount by 50% in 6 months, including hard-to-fill tech roles, which wasn't something we were going to do on our own. Digital Waffle filled the gap properly. They got us the people we needed at the pace we needed them, and at significantly less cost than building out our own recruitment function. We hit the target on schedule."
"Digital Waffle were a real help when we were building out our engineering team. It was a fast-moving period, with a lot happening across our website and apps, and they quickly understood the kind of people we needed. They supported us with both perm and contract hires, kept things moving and made the whole process feel straightforward. Really easy team to work with."
"Hitting 40 hires in 18 months across infrastructure and engineering was an ambitious target, and we needed an agency that could deliver against it without us having to manage the process closely. Digital Waffle did exactly that. The shortlists were focused and we didn't waste time on candidates who weren't right. Every role landed on schedule, and the people they brought in are already contributing to the programmes they're supporting."
"Zak has been a real help in building out our talent pool at Commify. His ability to source candidates across diverse roles has been genuinely impressive. His professionalism and commitment to our recruitment needs have made a real difference to the quality of people we've been able to hire."
"We've been hiring across marketing, digital and the wider team for the last 18 months, and Digital Waffle have been our go-to partner throughout. They've placed 82 people for us, from juniors right through to director level, perm and freelance. It's a lot of moving parts for one agency to handle well, and they've kept on top of it the whole way through. We'll be using them again."
"We brought Digital Waffle in to run our hiring through the development hub launch, and they've placed over 50 specialists for us across product, development, design and QA in the two years since. The quality has been consistent throughout, which matters across a stretch that long. They've become the team we go to when we need to hire."
"Digital Waffle handled our hiring across data and engineering for the last year, supporting a big period of transformation. They listened to what we needed and brought us qualified candidates for each role, twenty in total. The team they've helped us build is now delivering real results across our digital projects. They got the brief and they got it right."
OUR RPO SOLUTION
If you're building a team rather than filling a single role, a per-placement fee isn't always the best value. Our recruitment process outsourcing model embeds dedicated recruiters into your business on a structured, scalable basis, with predictable costs and clear reporting instead of a fee on every hire.
FAQs
Most UK recruitment agencies charge between 15% and 25% of the candidate's first year base salary for a permanent placement, with the fee only payable once the candidate starts. At Digital Waffle, our fees are 20% on standard terms, 17.5% on exclusive terms and 15% for retained search, and every option includes a rebate period if the hire doesn't work out.
The fee covers the whole hiring process from brief to start date. That includes salary advice before you go to market, the search itself, candidate screening, interview coordination, offer negotiation and check-ins once your hire starts. There are no advertising, job board or sourcing charges added on top, so you pay one fee on one invoice and nothing else.
No. On standard and exclusive terms, you only pay when the candidate you hire starts work. There are no upfront costs, advertising charges or fees for interviews that don't lead to a hire. The one exception is retained search, where 50% of the fee is invoiced when the search begins and the remaining 50% on the candidate's first day.
A rebate period is the number of weeks after a candidate starts during which you can claim a refund of the recruitment fee if they leave, whether they resign or you let them go. Ours is 8 weeks on standard terms and 12 weeks on exclusive and retained search terms, reducing by 12.5% each week. It applies as long as the invoice was paid within terms, and for retained search it covers the full fee across both invoices.
Exclusive recruitment means you give one agency the role on its own, but you still only pay on placement. Retained search means you commit to that agency with an upfront payment, usually half the fee, in return for a dedicated search process. Exclusive suits most mid-level roles, while retained is better for senior, specialist or confidential hires where the candidate pool is small.
Our fee is calculated on base salary only, meaning the fixed annual salary in the offer letter before any bonus, commission, car allowance, pension or other benefits. For part-time roles we use the pro-rata salary, and for fixed-term contracts of 12 months or more, the annual salary. Shorter contract roles are priced separately. If you're unsure what to offer, our salary benchmarking can help.
If you employ a candidate we introduced within 12 months of that introduction, whether through our process, a direct application or another agency, our fee still applies. This is standard across the recruitment industry and protects the work that goes into finding and presenting candidates. If you're unsure whether a candidate came from us, just ask and we'll check.
The three options above are our standard terms, and the lower fees on exclusive and retained search are already our way of rewarding commitment. If you're hiring several people, planning a larger project or have a specific need these terms don't cover, talk to one of our consultants and we'll put together something that fits.
Get in touch
Share a few details about the role and we'll start building a search focused on finding the right hire for your team.
We'll talk through which terms suit the role and move quickly to find candidates who match.
Prefer to talk? Call us on 0121 517 0357.
